Johanna Mehl @ Symposium "Ruptures and Reckonings: A Decade of Critical Design" in Halle

The Symposium "Ruptures and Reckonings: A Decade of Critical Design" invites designers, (design)anthropologists, educators, and transdisciplinary and independent researchers to reflect on the last decade of critical and decolonial design practices. The event is hosted by the department of Design Studies at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle. Join us on May 15–16, 2026, for two days of dialogue and critical interventions. All participants must complete the registration form (on desktop, the link appears in the left-hand column; on mobile, it is placed at the bottom of the page); the deadline to register is 11 May.

Conference Website

Johanna Mehl's constribution is a screening of Eli Noyes and Claudia Weill’s documentary IDCA 1970 (22 min), preceded by contextual framing and followed by a facilitated discussion. The film documents the 1970 International Design Conference in Aspen, titled "Environment by Design," which was effectively disrupted by design students and young practitioners who challenged what they perceived as dusty conference practices of the establishment, interrogated disciplinary complicity, and demanded that design address urgent social and environmental crises. Johanna Mehl draws from her dissertation research on the history of design as problem-solving, in which she leverages this event as emblematic of a pivotal historical moment when the really big problems entered design’s disciplinary purview and a new generation reckoned with modernist design paradigms.

This screening—supported by additional archival material—offers a productive meta-reflection for conference participants. It invites us to consider the genealogies of critical discourse within design—discourses that, while often framed as recent developments of the past decade, have deeper historical roots across related disciplines but also within design. The 1970 IDCA disruption reveals striking continuities with contemporary calls for experimental conference formats, critical reflexivity, and engagement with systemic problems. The film prompts questions like: How do we document critical design raptures and ruptures? How do critical movements lose momentum? What were the limitations and blind spots of these earlier movements, and what can we learn from both their successes and failures? By excavating this moment this session aims to historicize current debates, acknowledge longer trajectories of critical practice, and foster dialogue about design's ongoing struggles with its purpose, methods, and responsibilities.